Master Data and Invoice Automation

When did you last review your data?

Complete and accurate data is important to any business – it is the driving force in helping a business be more efficient, make cost savings, win new customers, improve customer service, identify opportunities and much more.

In this blog, we’re focusing on data in your Oracle ERP application. We consider how accurate supply chain data helps you optimise your finance and procure-to-pay processes. Also, how it will improve your supplier relationships that are essential for business growth.

What do we mean by master data?

Let’s start by explaining what is meant by master data.   Master data is the core data that is essential to the successful running of a business’s operations. The kind of data treated as master data differs between industries and companies but tends to include customer data, product data, users and hierarchy, procurement and supplier data, tax data and much more. A simple explanation is all data that is critical to your business operations should be categorised as master data.

Master data drives the Source to Settle processes

The master data is used to drive the procure-to-pay process and is key to the success of invoice automation. Without it, it is difficult for any level of supply chain automation to be implemented.

The use of master data helps to ensure that the procure-to-pay process is accurate and up to date. This includes verifying the accuracy of the data extracted from the invoice and ensuring that the process is compliant and without delays.

Master data helps to streamline the invoicing process by eliminating manual data entry and ensuring that the correct payment process is followed.

When it comes to the invoicing process, one key element is supplier data - this includes supplier information, product information, pricing information, and more.

Supplier data is critical because the supplier address data will be used to match invoices to the supplier and then in turn validate the PO number on the invoice. It’s also important for tax information and processes too.

The importance of data quality and data management

Businesses need good quality data because it means processes and business decisions are more reliable, accurate and complete.

There is the adage ‘garbage in, garbage out’ which we all know is a perfect reflection of poor data management. There is often also the assumption that sometimes OCR doesn’t work when the reality is that commonly organisations’ data is simply outdated or inaccurate, which prevents data validation and results in poor automatic indexing.

When was the last time you reviewed master data?

Organisations often wrongly assume they need to run a master data cleanse project. In actual fact, data should be continuously managed so that you reduce the cost of identifying and fixing bad data!

The benefits of accurate master data

The benefits of accurate master data for automating invoice processing are numerous – not least that you can rely on it being fit for purpose.

Here are just some of the key advantages of good quality master data for invoice automation:

1. Increased accuracy and visibility into the invoicing process - poor or inconsistent master data has an increased risk of error. An incorrect address, for example, can lead to delays and frustration on both sides of a transaction.
2. Reduced manual data entry – manual processes cannot compete on efficiency or cost-effectiveness and manual data processing is not a good solution for a company looking for growth.
3. Improved compliance and auditability across your business
4. Streamlined approval process meaning everything runs much more efficiently.
5. Improved user and supplier satisfaction because the quality of data will mean there are fewer issues to deal with.
6. More efficient and cost-effective invoice processing - with reliable data, data entry and data processing is fast and simple.
   
   

Top tips for managing your master data

Having well-managed master data and data-driven business culture will bring many long-term benefits and help you avoid challenges such as data redundancy, data inconsistencies and business process inefficiencies.

Our top tips for managing your master data well are -

Define who is responsible for managing master data within each function in your business. For supplier data, it will probably be the purchasing or supply chain department.

Ensure there is a policy and process in place for creating, updating and expiring master data.

Set regular review dates to ensure the process is working and data continues to be accurate.

Ensure you have the right software to help with the management of your data.

For more information, you can watch our on-demand best practices webinar the Importance of Master Data Management for Invoice Automation where, based on our experiences. we discuss the importance of complete and accurate data to your business. Remember that data is the driving force in helping a business be more efficient and make cost savings. We consider how accurate supply chain data helps you optimise your finance and procure-to-pay processes.

If you are grappling with invoice automation and/or data issues, please get in touch.